Now at the end of the first year of its public phase, the Campaign for Academic Enrichment has already fully funded the proposed Creative Arts Building, thanks to more than $33 million in gifts. University officials say the project's $30 million goal was met more than five years ahead of schedule due to an unexpected amount of enthusiasm from parents and alums.
"There's a very broad interest in the creative arts in this country, and it usually finds outlets outside of universities - in museums and concert halls and galleries - but this project has invited support from alumni and parents who want to bring that interest to Brown," said Senior Vice President for University Advancement Ronald Vanden Dorpel AM'71.
Originally, the Creative Arts Building, which is to be built on Waterman Street across from Leeds Theater, was a lesser priority than proposed projects like the Nelson Fitness Center, the Walk, the Cogut Center for the Humanities and a cognitive science building at 154 Angell St., which already have sites and architects designated as well as renderings drawn up illustrating what they might look like.
According to several sources interviewed by The Herald, the Creative Arts Building will not replace departmental offices but will provide a flexible, multiple-use space with performance studios and room for interdisciplinary projects.
The Brown Corporation, the University's governing body, first authorized fundraising for the Creative Arts Building at its February 2005 meeting, asking that $18 million be raised for construction and $12 million for infrastructure and operations, according to a Feb. 26, 2005 University press release. The Corporation ordered that the University not proceed with the project until it was fully funded.
"(The Creative Arts Building) was not way up at the top (of the University's table of needs). It was in the mix, but people got excited about it and raised a fair amount of money so that is being pushed," Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior advisor to the president, told The Herald earlier this month.
Spies said even though the Creative Arts Building received support more quickly than expected, it has always been a priority for the University. "(Current building projects) are all fundamentally within the basic priorities," he said. "None of those came from left field. They're both in the infield, if you will, already, so it's a question of how quickly you pull (donors) in."
The Division of Advancement, which oversees the fundraising campaign, works to identify donors. Vanden Dorpel said his office carefully researches who might be potentially be in a position to donate and what they might be interested in funding. "We're not just going to people willy-nilly," he said.
But Vanden Dorpel also said volunteers, alums and faculty are crucial in engaging potential donors in the University's efforts to expand. "Faculty are always invaluable in speaking to prospective donors," he said. "There is no substitute for the passion of a faculty member with respect to his or her field."
"One of the reasons for the interest in the Creative Arts Building is the long-established Creative Arts Council. There's nothing like it in place for the cognitive science lab or, indeed, for other building projects," Vanden Dorpel said.
The Creative Arts Council is an interdisciplinary forum made up of faculty from the departments of visual arts, theater, speech and dance, modern culture and media, music and literary arts as well as people involved in the Rites and Reason Theatre, the David Winton Bell Gallery, the Brown/Trinity Consortium and the Dance Legacy Institute.
Jo-Ann Conklin, director of the Bell Gallery, said the Creative Arts Council has been able to "create a united front for the arts at Brown," allowing members of different departments to clearly articulate the need for a facility.
But she gave most of the credit for the fundraising success to the Creative Arts Advisory Board, "a board of alums that are placed in high-ranking positions in the arts throughout the country."
According to Conklin, the board includes people like Guggenheim Museum Director Lisa Dennison AM'78, Academy Award-nominated actress Laura Linney '86 and Tony Award-nominated actress Kate Burton '79 P'10, among others. Conklin said members of the advisory board have played an important role in building support among other alums, parents and friends of the University. According to a November 2005 Herald article, the Creative Arts Building was originally proposed by the advisory board more than five years ago.
Both Conklin and Vanden Dorpel said Richard Fishman, Creative Arts Council chair and a professor of visual art, has traveled the country promoting the creative arts to groups of alums. Other faculty have also spoken in favor of the building on occasion, including at an annual gala in New York City sponsored by the advisory board, Conklin said.
Fishman had no comment, except to say, "I couldn't be more happy. This is absolutely wonderful for the University."
Administrators said the strong fundraising by creative arts faculty and alums reflects the normal fundraising process in that the University constructs a table of needs and then shifts its priorities according to donors' response. "We try to prioritize, and then donors have their own ideas about where they want to give their money," Vanden Dorpel said. "Our job is then to try and match the donor's interest with a particular University priority."
"Some things are moving faster than other things, but fundamentally donors are saying, 'OK, you need support for an academic building or you need support for a major student life facility, and the possibilities are these two or three,'" Spies said. "But they're not dreaming up new priorities that take things from way down over here and boost them to the top."
Meanwhile, Vanden Dorpel said even though the building has met its $30 million goal well before the end of the campaign, the University will continue to raise money for the arts. He cited ongoing efforts to increase the endowment for the Brown/Trinity Repertory Master of Fine Arts program, renovate Grant Recital Hall and expand departments' curricular offerings as other ongoing arts-related projects.
